


With Cracked Pacifier

by Night-Mare (Aoife)



Series: Cracks 'verse - All [5]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe, BAMF Lal Mirch, Dark fic, Gen, Lal Mirch Has a Soldier's Filthy Mouth, POV Lal Mirch, Sawada Iemitsu Being an Idiot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-02 06:13:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10938657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare
Summary: The fourth side fic toBetween the Cracks. Lal Mirch finds out that Iemitsu's Family is injured/missing. The state of his office doesn't help her temper.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Saj_te_Gyuhyall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saj_te_Gyuhyall/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Between the Cracks](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10896882) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare). 



One of these days, she was going to _kill_ Iemitsu Sawada. She'd probably even get away with it if she claimed Arcobaleno's privilege. It would be a service to the Familiga, too. At the very least - she promised herself - she was going to drag the man into a training room and do her best to kick his ass. The pile of papers - papers that _should_ be properly secured - on his desk was at least as tall as she was. And his desk phone's answer machine was showing a dozen messages.

On the chair - on the _fucking_ chair - there was a note that said "Lal, Gone on a mission, you're in charge. Iemitsu." She was upgrading that ass kicking to include every goddamn special technique she had learned from the other Arcobaleno; the way her Flames had broken, and the Mist and Cloud Flames it had left her with meant she could imitate almost all of them.

Goddamn fucking idiot. He wasn't suppose to be in the fucking field. Not while they were still dealing with the fallout from the Cradle Affair. Fine. She was going to start with the answer machine messages; he couldn't have been gone for more than thirty-six hours; that was when she'd last seen him in the building. The stuff on his desk would have to wait a bit longer, but the messages on that answer machine probably couldn't.

And oh, for fuck sake. All of the messages were in Japanese and it took her a moment to translate the first message - and then she skipped to the last message, which had more details; fuck. Nana in hospital and Tsuna missing - she was still going to kick the idiot's head, but it would have to wait until they'd retrieved the kid.

Who did they have in Namimori that she could lean on to find out more? There had to be someone - the idiot wouldn't have left his family unguarded, would he? Not with the way he boasted about them. Admittedly it was entirely possible this wasn't related to his role as the Vongola's Young Lion, but.

She stalked back out of the idiot's office and into the command centre, radiating killing intent. She hopped up onto the central table, where the battle board had been when they were still Daniela's CEDEF, and waited until all eyes were on her. "Which of you idiots let the idiot-in-chief out into the field, and where the fuck is he?"

She would have heard a pin drop, if anyone had dared to drop one. "I'm waiting. One of you must have an idea, or do I need to gift wrap you and send you to Colonello for a month?" A nervous clearing of the throat had her turning on the unfortunate who'd made it.

"He went out with Tumeric and Oregano, Ma'am. I don't know where." She turned down the killing intent a little; it seemed that the staff in the command centre _really_ didn't know where he'd gone. Which was another negative mark against him surviving much longer. "They left about six hours ago, Ma'am."

"I'm not an officer," she searched her memory for the girl's name, "Sage. I work for a fucking living. Stop calling me ma'am. And you're excused the month with Colonello; the rest of you can forfeit a month's leave and take yourself down for a training session." There was a collective groan. "And someone find me the fucking contact details for whoever is watching the idiot-in-chief's family."

When no one moved, or said anything, she closed her eyes and sighed. "I'll be in the idiot's office, triaging the pile of fucking documents on his desk. Find me the contact details for whoever is closest to Namimori, if you can't find who's watching them. And whoever gets hold of the idiot-in-chief, first, is let off the training session, too. Now move it!"


	2. Chapter 2

Speed reading her way through the files on the idiot's desk was not her choice for how to spend the day, but it needed to be done. And it was something she could do while she was waiting for someone to find her the information she'd requested. It didn't do anything for her temper, though, and by the time she was half way down the stack, she was finding documents that predated Xanxus' coup attempt - including one document that made her throw a glass at the wall. Because it was in Xanxus' spiky handwriting, describing a whole series of failings that he'd seen in the Familiga. Most of which had been resolved in the aftermath of his coup. And if the boy had tried to warn them, and been ignored?

She winced. There was no way to be sure, short of the Ninth relenting and defrosting the brat, and them asking him, though, and that would take more evidence than she had found so far. But it did leave her with something to investigate while she waited for someone to locate the idiot. What it did mean however was that she didn't go through the documents that Colonello had sent from Mafia Island particularly closely.

(Not that the reduction in the number of street children on the last two Island census would have meant anything to her at this point in time, but if she'd put it together with Tsuna's disappearance and her next phone call? Maybe the CEDEF would have got there soon _enough_.)

"Tsuyoshi Yamamoto has been seen leaving the information broker in Rome in the last two hours." One of the members of the command centre sticks her head round the office door, and she looks up from where she's sat cross-legged on the desk, going through the remaining documents.

"And? You're telling me this _why_?" She's vaguely heard of the man; a Rain-Active Swordsman, like the young Sword Emperor that the Ninth had left in charge of the Varia, but retired. Dangerous though, especially if he had kept up his skill set; not many managed to retire and survive more than a year or two.

"Because he's the only point of contact for Namimori that we could find, other than Mei-lin Hibari - and she has a 'do not annoy flag' on her file." Lal resists the temptation to face palm; what has Iemitsu been teaching his command staff? They had no fucking idea how to make a report! If they weren't careful, she was going to send them to Colonello for _two_ months.

"Bring me the fucking files." She eyed the woman, "I'll take two weeks off your training, but you're still going." The fact that the woman meeped and fled - that one might have a brain, but she needed a spine to go with it. She'd send her notes on the command staff down to her former protege before they got there; and he could kick them back into shape while she took out her temper on their 'commander'.

She scanned through both files as soon as they were handed to her - and fuck it, she understood better why the woman had led with the information about Yamamoto; no one in the Mafia ever wanted to poke a Cloud unless they absolutely had to. She, however recognised the face looking back at her from Mei-lin Hibari's file - even if that wasn't the name she knew her by. Fon's daughter; the martial artist had shown her a picture of his daughter, a rather beautiful fifteen year old at the time, not long before the curse had happened.

She was still uneasy about the idea of poking a Cloud, but. If Yamamoto was in Italy, the woman now known as Mei-lin Hibari was her best hope of getting more information. Even if she wasn't _in_ Namimori, if she was anything like the other Classic Clouds she knew, she would still have informants.

Sighing, she rang the number in the file, and tried to remember her formal Japanese.


	3. Chapter 3

"Am I speaking to Hibari Mei-lin?" She crosses her fingers, and hopes that she's actually speaking to the Cloud she needs; the voice on the other end of the phone doesn't sound quite right for Fon's daughter, though, and she's not surprised when the woman on the other end names herself Kuskabe-san and asks her why she wishes to speak to Hibari-sama.

"I'm a colleague of her father's," she's not sure how much detail either Kasumi or this woman know about the eight of them, and the curse that they share, "and I need to talk to her about something that's happened in Namimori." She's not entirely sure what she's said that causes the woman on the other end of the phone to gasp - there's fast footsteps, tapping on tiles - and then there's a different voice on the other end of the phone, one that sounds like the feminine version of Fon.

"Hibari Mei-lin. Is that Lal Mirch or Giglio-Nero Aria," That answers her question. Enough that Kasumi knows about Aria taking her mother's place despite the Giglio-Nero Donna concealing the fact, "I'm speaking to, and may I assume you heard from my father?" She doesn't like the sound of that - it sounds like there are problems in Japan. Shit.

"Lal Mirch. And no; I haven't heard from Fon for more than a month -" there's the sound of something smashing, and Kasumi must be thoroughly frustrated to be throwing things, "I can check with the others though?" She receives an affirmative noise, and plows on. "I'm with the CEDEF," something cracks in the background; it sounds like nothing as much as it does when she herself forgets her curse and squeezes the edge of an inadequately reinforced desk, "and there have been a number of phone messages left for my CO." Her own anger seeps into her voice.

"The Young Lion seems to be as frustrating to work for as he is for the rest of us to interact with." The statement is almost a non-sequitur, then she remembers that the woman she's talking to is not just Kasumi, Fon's daughter, but is also a politician's wife and a Mist as well as a Cloud. "I'm assuming you're ringing about his wife and his son, then, Lal Mirch? Care to share why the man hasn't bothered to do the same?" There's an edge to the other woman's voice, a reminder that she's dangerous on more than one level, and she wonders if Fon bargained with Checkerface to keep her from being claimed by one of the pacifiers.

"I am. And yes, he is -" she shakes her frustration off, and checks she hasn't managed to leave fingerprints in her own desk again, "- an unmitigated pain in my ass." That earns her a bitter chuckle. "He's on a 'mission'." She drops the quotes carefully in place around the word, and listens to see if Kasumi catches them. The woman does.

"I see. Then the man is fool, and his wife deserves better." Lal can only agree, even if Kasumi's mundane existence as a politician's wife is showing; she'd not meant that baka-mitsu was having an affair, but she didn't feel like correcting the woman. "Nana-san is hospitalised, and newly Active as a Sky; Tsunayoshi-kun is missing - as are a number of other children from my town." And there is the Cloud's Rage, buried under a thousand masks that allow the woman to dance in the political sphere.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. How was she suppose to answer that? "How many are missing, Kasumi?" The woman's birth name slips out and she curses herself again.

"Oh you are well informed, Lal Mirch. I'm afraid I don't know your own birth name. Including my son-" which explains why she had assumed that Fon had asked her to call, "there are nine children missing from my town. The evidence suggests Italian Flame Users are involved; I want my son back. Be glad that politics mean I cannot come and Rage in Italy, Lal Mirch." The woman's voice is icy cold, now, the Rage she's riding so very close to the surface.

She swallows; her own Cloud Flames answering the thread of Mist woven into the voice of the woman she's talking to - "Is one of them Tsuyoshi Yamamoto's son?" She has to work to wrestle them back under control; they'd always been volatile, but the twisted version of the curse she bore made them _very_ reactive to her state of mind. The other woman actually claps.

"Oh I do hope he's making a _mess_. Yes; his son Takeshi was taken from his little league practise by someone wearing an illusion of him. His body count is up to three by my men's estimate -" Her own comparison of the man to the bloodthirsty Sword Emperor, certainly seemed far more apt all of a sudden. "- and that's not counting anyone dead since he set foot in Italy." Kasumi's voice turns serious again. "Find my son, Lal Mirch, before I manage to talk the Prime Minister into letting me loose; and tell your idiot CO that if he set foot in Namimori, he's dead. His wife is now my Sky, and I refuse to let him near her." The phone clicks, as the Cloud cuts her off before she can say anything, and Lal throws the handset at the wall.

She was going to _kill_ Iemitsu.


	4. Chapter 4

She's only on this mission because it had been a choice between getting out of the office or breaking Iemitsu's neck in addition to the thigh and elbow she'd already wrecked to stop him flying into Namimori and pissing off Kasumi. He hadn't been worried about Nana for her own sake; his worry had had strong undertones of 'how dare a Cloud claim my wife as territory', rather than genuine worry about her as a person or the level of trauma that a civilian woman had received that she'd gone Flame Active. And he wasn't taking Tsuna's disappearance at all seriously; not when compared to Kasumi's claiming of his wife as her Sky; he'd actually tried to turn around the known facts to suggest that Kasumi was holding him hostage!

(Fortunately she had enough clout that none of the Suns capable of actually accelerating the healing of the bones she'd broken were willing to come close to the CEDEF Sky. He might manage to get Lussuria to heal him, but only if he paid through the nose, and could manage to refrain from insulting the Sun Officer. She almost wished he would manage to get himself healed, just so she could re-break his limbs. Perhaps Brow Nie Jr would take pity on him?)

They had a rogue - and almost Arcobaleno strength - Rain killing his way through minor Familiga with a cursed Sword and a seeming non-requirement to sleep; the Arcobaleno Sky was murmuring about the future being shattered - and hadn't it surprised the seven of them to find Luce's daughter wearing the Sky Pacifier - and the hair on the back of her neck itched. If she held the CEDEF in her own right, she'd have the organisation on a war footing, tearing apart the rest of the Flame Mafia, looking for the missing Vongola heir, but she didn't - and the Ninth had made her swear an oath, a fucking oath on her Flames not to kill any Sky of Vongola blood when she'd joined the CEDEF. She agreed, only to find out later that that meant she couldn't kill the Idiot.

According to the mission briefing she'd read, there weren't suppose to be any Flame Users in the compound they were infiltrating; it was suppose to belong to a relatively minor Familiga, who had had connections - finally uncovered - to the death of one of the Ninth's sons. (She made a mental note to check if there was a blood sample on file for Xanxus; she wanted to know who the Wrath Sky was actually descended from.) That was why the team only had a single Flame Active on it, a Lightning, not particularly strong but more than capable of manifesting a shield that was adequate for bullets on the original team. It should have been a milk run. It really should, but it wasn't and she was damn grateful than she'd assigned herself to it. There'd have been another massacre if she hadn't, and they'd already had the Elevator of Blood mess.

There was an incredibly strong Rain and a mid-range Mist in the compound; it was possible that they were one and the same individual, but she was skeptical. It had left her with the rest of the team borderline comatose thanks to the overwhelming quantity of Rain Flames they'd been hit with. They'd need a Sun's attention to be sure they didn't just slide quietly into a full coma, and given they were twitching due to illusions - illusions she had to actively dispel lest they catch her, too, it wouldn't even be a gentle death.

But she's close enough to immune, and blessed with enough of the Arcobaleno's cursed physical strength that she can drag them back to their vehicles and summon a Flame Active team to retrieve them. That done, she decides that she's going to hunt down the Rain; they were strong enough and indiscriminate enough that they were in desperate need of training, and the Arcobaleno had a pact and taught for a reason.

The Rain was ridiculous; they might even be a match for pre-pacifier Colonello, though not yet a match for her own Flames. But definitely not that well trained, or not actually working for this group willingly. Some of the men whose heads she had blown off with her shotgun had been moving very slowly. Like they were wading through treacle, the same way the men that had tried to kill her and forced her Flame Active had. At least the skewing of her curse had made her both sensitive to and immune to Rain Flames, which made tracking the user easy.

He. She's fairly sure the Rain - Misty Rain, in truth - is a he. But young. And skinny-malnourished, with a knife to his throat. The knife holder had a weak Storm Flame, explaining how he was preventing the boy from effecting him. She snorts softly; her shotgun was as much for intimidation as anything else; she also carries a silenced, heavily modified pistol sized for her hands, with which she was a phenomenal shot. She and Renato regularly competed with each other for title of best pistol shot amongst the I Prescelti Sette, with her former student coming a distance third to the pair of them.

He - the Storm - goes down easily. A single bullet through the eye has him dead before he even hits the floor, and the little Misty Rain (perhaps all of six or seven; possibly younger still, given his physical size) tracks her location easily, relaxing at the sight of her toddler sized form. His delight in the man's messy death and his non-response to the bodily fluids he was now coated with was it's own sort of disturbing; his lack of attachment suggested that she might have just found another kidnap victim.

She rolls her eyes and jumps down. The kid - who looks eerily like baka-Mitsu's missing son, but the eye and hair color was wrong - looks at her in confusion until she sighs, slings her shotgun over her shoulder, and fills her hands with her Flame. "Not going to try and control you, kid. But I do need you to wind that Rain of yours in so we can finish clearing the building, and tell me where the fuck the bastards found you - and if you saw a kid that looked like you, but brunette and amber eyed there."

He blinks at her in confusion, and she tries English instead of Italian; really she shouldn't be surprised that they'd snatched brats from more countries than just Italy and Japan; she did some quick calculations, recalling that baka-Mitsu had visited the UK in the right window for the Rain to be his natural son if he was about six. The English gets her a pleased babble, and confirmation that yes, he had been kidnapped and tortured and sold once he'd lit up with the light blue and dark blue Flames and learnt the very basics of using them. But that he had no idea how to turn them off from the state he was in, which looked a lot like Hyper Dying Will Mode. Which was another confirmation that he was likely baka-Mitsu's - spontaneously occurring HDWM was only documented in Primo and Secondo's descendants. Others could learn to access it, but only they seemed to be able to do it young and at will. She does know the theory behind getting someone out of the state though, and talks him through it; fortunately the kid is bright enough to follow her on the first attempt.

She's not surprised by the results of the medical run on the kid; can even see how the treatment might induce Flame Active status in children, especially if they were handled in a group that had been encouraged to bond first, before they were 'broken'. She still breaks Iemitsu's other leg when the DNA results come back. How hard was it to use a fucking condom? Especially when you were a Sky whose bloodlines were valuable and you were sticking your dick in complete unknowns! Young, untrained Skies were vulnerable and the idea of deliberately leaving one isolated and outside the community and the protection of one of the Sky-led Familiga made her skin crawl.

Not that she was going to tell Baka-mitsu that he had a second child; it was entirely possible he'd either deny the kid, or treat him the way most Mafia bastards were; as useful meat shields for their legitimate siblings. If the kid had been a Sky, she might have taken him directly to the Ninth, but she'd keep him as an apprentice for the moment. Especially with the way he flinched from adults; she'd send him to her bratty former student if she had to to keep him safe; Colonello still owed her and he'd both be non-threatening and able to teach the kid more about his Flames.

He'd need his own name, too - he couldn't remember his. She was calling him Basil for the moment; it was the designated code name for 'her' apprentice as the second in command of the CEDEF, should she take one. Unfortunately he hadn't known the name of the Familiga that had kidnapped him; just that they had a largely underground base and a bare handful of their own Flame Users. She had her fingers crossed that she'd find something in the docs that the follow up team had pulled from the mansion where she'd found 'Basil', if only so she could retarget Tsuyoshi and propitiate Kasumi; she had no desire to add a Cloud - of close to Arcobaleno strength - Raging to the Rain currently carving his way through the lower echelons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm currently visiting my girlfriend overseas, so updates may be erratic.


End file.
